Monday, 14 November 2016

THE RESCUE OF HALLELUJAH FROM RELIGION

Nick Baines, Bishop of Croydon, has declared the overused word hallelujah rescued from being "just a religious word" by poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen who died on November 7.

Discussing the legendary hit song on a BBC documentary, the bishop said, "We're broken human beings all of us, so stop pretending. We can all use hallelujah because it comes from being open and transparent before God and the world while saying 'This is how it is mate' "In death Cohen's timing was impeccable. He couldn’t have wished for a better week in
which to have an inevitable global focus on a powerful body of work – poetry and song
– that stretched from the early 60s to a week in which....

In short, my world was in turmoil. My spirituality was in
tatters. I was angry and disappointed.

My solace came as tributes poured in for the 82-year-old poet,
composer and singer, I was reminded of how his hit song Hallelujah had impacted on my spiritual journey, particularly as I
began my middle-aged venture into Anglicanism and priesthood.

West Wing
and Shrek

Even if you are not a Cohen fan chances are you
have heard the song, albeit on the popular West Wing series, watching Shrek
with your kids or perhaps sung by the likes of Bob Dylan, Bon Jovi or Bono, who
declared it “the best song in the world”.

Here's a short version of the lyrics:

Now I've
heard there was a secret chord

That
David played, and it pleased the Lord

But you
don't really care for music, do you?

It goes
like this

The
fourth, the fifth

The minor
fall, the major lift

The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Your
faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw
her bathing on the roof

Her
beauty and the moonlight overthrew her

She tied
you

To a
kitchen chair

She broke
your throne, and she cut your hair

And from
your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

You say I
took the name in vain

I don't
even know the name

But if I
did, well really, what's it to you?

There's a
blaze of light

In every
word

It
doesn't matter which you heard

The holy
or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

I did my
best, it wasn't much

I
couldn't feel, so I tried to touch

I've told
the truth, I didn't come to fool you

And even
though

It all
went wrong

I'll
stand before the Lord of Song

With
nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

The
perfect and the broken

Incidentally, the song is broadcast at 2am
every Saturday by the Israeli Defence Force's radio channel and Cohen once said
of the song's meaning: "It explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do
exist, and all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have equal value."

Not a born and bred Anglican, I don’t hum hymns
under my breath when washing the dishes and Cohen’s Hallelujah was the only ‘hymn’
in my arsenal when I knocked at the Church’s door. It would carry me through my questioning of
why the Almighty needed praise. And it's interesting to note how often Cohen’s ‘psalm’
has been the focus of sermons within Judaism, Christianity and even Buddhism.
(Cohen was a Buddhist monk for a time and re-entered the music world when he felt
he had attained sufficient spiritual discipline.)

As Rabbi Michael Sternfield remarked at Chicago Sinai Congregation on the Day of Atonement in 2008, “One of
the most overworked words in the Bibles of both Judaism and Christianity is
‘Hallelujah’, which literally means, ‘Praise God’. Even after all these years I
still can’t understand why we need to praise God so much. Could God possible be
so insecure that God needs to be told how great God is? Or worse, do we really
believe that God is susceptible to flattery?”

Interestingly in the Jewish faith Hallelujah is
a commandment to praise. In the Christian tradition, it is a word of praise.

The
rabbi added that the more he listened to Cohen’s Hallelujah, “I have come to recognise
the struggles many of us go through, especially on a night such as this, when
we are expected to praise God but our hearts may not be in it”.

A
reluctant song of praise

I agree with Rabbi Michael – Cohen’s Hallelujah
is a reluctant song of praise, expressing gratitude in the midst of sorrow (and
my political angst) it serves this broken time, our failures and
disappointments. Maybe it’s not a song for the young who march in our cities
but it resonates with my life experiences.

It also fits well with a rabbinic legend that
when Moses descended from the mountain carrying the tablets with God’s
Commandments. He was so distraught by how his people had behaved during his
absence that he threw the tablets to the ground where they smashed into
countless fragments. When the people repented of their idolatry new tablets
were made. Legend tells us both sets were then placed in the Ark and Rabbi
Michael suggests that the Ark of the Covenant is our hearts which hold both the
whole and the shattered elements of our lives.

As the rabbi emphasised, “In spite of all the
pain and sadness we have known, still life is good, every day is a blessing and
therefore we praise and express gratitude to God, even in our darkest hours.”

Birth of
the blues

Bono, singer and Christian, once shared that
the invocation of David resonated because, “I’ve thought a lot about him. He
was a harp player and the first God heckler ….’Why hast thou forsaken me?’
That’s the beginning of the blues.”

Maybe it’s a good time for those of us battered
by recent events to do some heckling of our own.

You will find a stack of erudite comments about
Hallelujah’s musical composition on Google if you are interested. For me the
comfort is in the poetry and Cohen’s assurance: “This world is full of
conflicts and things that cannot be reconciled but there are moments when we
can transcend the dualistic system and reconcile and embrace the whole mess,
and that’s what I mean by Hallelujah.”

Flowers
for Hitler

Perhaps the pollsters who were embarrassed by
Donald Trump’s win should reflect on Cohen’s poem Flowers for Hitler. I quote:
“what is most original in a man's nature is often that which is most desperate.
thus, new systems are forced on the world by men who simply cannot bear the
pain of living with what is. Creators care nothing for their systems except
that they be unique. if Hitler had been born in Nazi Germany he wouldn't have
been content to enjoy the atmosphere.”

As the poet pointed out, what’s the use of
decrying the Holocaust, a Trump win or racism, if in our own lives we are cruel
to others?If at our own dinner tables
we are guilty of denigrated those who are different from us?

To the end

In October 2016, mere weeks before his death,
Cohen released the album You Want It
Darker. Severe back issues made it difficult for him to leave home so his
son Adam placed a microphone on his dining room table and recorded him on a
laptop. The album was met with rave reviews as the 82-year-old lived up to his maxim
of never retiring.

Adam says he continued
composing to the very end and died with his sense of humour intact. Earlier, he reportedly said “I am ready to die," and
added, "I hope it's not too uncomfortable. That's about it for me."

Typically, when that crisis
passed, he confessed to a tendency to exaggerate," "I’ve always been
into self-dramatisation, I intend to live forever.”

Despite his Zen leanings the songwriter
requested that he be laid to rest "in a traditional Jewish rite beside his
parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.”

Maybe it’s a good time for those of us battered
by recent events to examine who we are. to shout out “Hallelujah” and to heckle
God for the strength to change our world.

Pass the
safety pin

One last thought, I’ve decided to subscribe to
the ‘Safety Pin movement’.

Huffington Post reports:

In the wake of Donald Trump's election, many groups in the US, including African Americans, Muslims and women, are feeling scared and uneasy.

Trump, who has said he would ban all Muslims from entering the US, made sexist and insulting comments about women and racist comments about people of color in America, is a frightening prospect for many Americans who believe he is unfit for office.

So, while protests rage on across the country, one movement is using a simple yet powerful symbol to show their support for anyone who is fearful of what is to come.

By fastening a safety pin to their clothing, people are declaring themselves allies to groups who have been maligned by Trump, to show that they stand in solidarity with anyone who might be afraid.

Who knows
what Donald Trump will do. Meanwhile, in South Africa the safety pin is fast
emerging as a sign of solidarity against racism.